Los Muertos Tempe Hohokam Settlement South
Los Muertos South · Tempe South Hohokam
Classic Period Hohokam (1200–1450 CE)·Hohokam Classic Period (Los Muertos–Pueblo Grande cluster)·🇺🇸 Arizona, Maricopa County, Tempe Basin, Salt River South Bank, United States
About
About Los Muertos Tempe Hohokam Settlement South
Los Muertos Tempe Hohokam Settlement South is the southern canal village of Los Muertos — one of the largest Classic Period Hohokam canal villages on the Salt River south bank opposite Pueblo Grande. South settlement trenches expose compound-walled caliche houses, a shared west canal lateral with Pueblo Grande, and a 200-cremation cemetery with Civano redware and Jeddito Yellow Ware — documenting Salt River Classic cremation-mound villages before the 1450 CE collapse, now buried under Tempe suburban and Phoenix Sky Harbor approach.
Why it mattersSalt River Classic cremation village south of Pueblo Grande — 200-cremation canal settlement under Tempe
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Cremation vs. inhumation at Los Muertos south — social or temporal?
- 02Canal sharing with Pueblo Grande — cooperative or competitive?
Theories
- 01Cushing Los Muertos great compound hypothesis tested south
- 02Phoenix Basin Classic canal integration Los Muertos–Pueblo Grande
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1200 CE Classic founding; platform 1300 CE
- Period
- Classic Period Hohokam (1200–1450 CE)
- Culture
- Hohokam Classic Period (Los Muertos–Pueblo Grande cluster)
- Builders
- Salt River Hohokam canal farmers, Los Muertos platform builders
- Purpose
- South settlement of Los Muertos — Classic Hohokam canal village 5km SE Pueblo Grande on Salt River south bank, now under Tempe suburban
- Abandoned
- c.1450 CE post-Classic abandonment
- Rediscovered
- Excavated 1887 Cushing & Bandelier; re-excavated 1926–27 Haury; 2000s CRM
- Excavation
- Excavated
1887
Cushing & Bandelier map Los Muertos, cremation mounds found
1927
Haury re-excavates south settlement 200-cremation cemetery
2003
CRM maps Tempe south settlement under suburban Tempe
On the ground
Structures & features
33.3800° N · 111.9200° W · 360 m · 3 mapped features
Cremation Cemetery (200 cremations)
necropolisCremation cemetery with Civano redware urns and Jeddito Yellow Ware, south settlement
33.3808° N · 111.9194° WCompound-Walled Canal Village
settlementCaliche-adobe compound village with west canal lateral Pueblo Grande shared
33.3793° N · 111.9209° WPlatform Mound South Outlier
platform moundLow platform outlier 2 m high south of main Los Muertos cluster
33.3811° N · 111.9193° W